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slight, or lack of consideration. They are offended by the brusk directness of a certain type of American who regards courtesy as undemocratic. Their sense of what is due to an individual is shocked by disregard of the requirements of formal courtesy. They have little sense of humor and detest boisterousness and all sorts of horse play.

In speaking of the characteristics and habits of the Filipinos the reader must constantly bear in mind that no characterization applies to all individuals or even to all classes. It is possible to generalize only with reference to the great body of the common people. As we have seen, there is great diversity of opinion as to their merits and demerits.

CHAPTER IV

The Native Peoples

II

THE MOROS

A Special Problem-The Designation Moro-The Different Tribes-Their Warlike Character-Running Amok-Weapons-Moro Forts-The Language and Books-Varying Habits-Physical Characteristics-Dress and Ornaments-Temperate-The Betel Nut Habit-Houses-Polygamy-Tribal Government-Slavery-Schools-Their Religion-Burial Customs-Their Industries-Power of Datus-The Moro Laws and Courts-Penalties-Old Customs Slowly Being Abandoned.

The tribes which inhabit the island of Mindanao and the Sulu and lesser groups at the extreme southwest extremities of the Archipelago have attracted much attention because of their warlike character and their distinction as the only Mohammedan wards of the United States. As a governmental factor they are most embarrassing. The wild men are good raw material, and the Filipinos are easily influenced in favor of good government, but the Moros, encased in the armor of Islamism, present a much more difficult problem. After a decade of American control, although intertribal wars and the worse vices of slavery have disappeared, they remain in character substantially as the Spaniards left them. Nevertheless those most familiar with the situation, while not enthusiastic, are hopeful of the future. Their regeneration will be a matter of generations, not of decades. General John J. Pershing, who has had much experience with the Moros, in his last annual report as governor of the province, says: "Relatively there has been great progress, but in reality

the people are yet in dense darkness and only the merest beginning has been made toward their enlightenment. The main thing to record is that we have a solid foundation for the future, in that the wild people and the Moros have come to look upon the Americans as their true friends. They have learned that they dare ask and that they will receive protection. They have found Americans just and unselfish, and they regard us as their defenders against their own countrymen who would keep them in ignorance for exploitation or seize upon them and sell them into slavery." However, unless "he can be induced to relinquish some of his most vicious customs, and unless he can be protected from exploitation at the hands of his datu, the Moro faces the future with very little of promise. He can not progress far while he is bound down by the chains of polygamy and female slavery. A code which recognizes plurality of wives and authorizes concubinage can not prevail against civilized standards of morality. Its baneful influence encourages sensuality and lust with all their degrading effect upon Moro character. Neither can the Moro advance under datu rule, the very foundation of which is laid in ignorance and strengthened by superstition. The moral sense is generally lacking in these datu leaders, and as a consequence even to a greater degree is the conscience of the common Moro befogged."

The Moro is not a subject for ordinary missionary work, but the medical missionary can reach him, and it is safe to predict that the work along that line recently commenced under the directions of Bishop Brent will be more effective than anything heretofore attempted.

The religion of Mohammed regulates the lives, government and customs as well as the beliefs of its followers. Hence a change of government, to some extent, necessarily interferes with their religion. With this in mind the difficulties in the way of imposing a new system of government will be appreciated.

To the Spaniards all the followers of Islamism were known as Moors or Moros, and the name has been perpetuated in the 1 Annual Report of Governor of the Moro Province, 1913.

islands as descriptive of all the Mohammedan tribes.2 There are six separate and distinct tribes of Moros, and five or six groups which hardly rise to the dignity of tribal entities, so nearly do they resemble one or another of the greater divisions or merge their identity with that of some one of the wholly pagan peoples. While possibly not the most numerous, the Jolo Moros, because of their fierce and intractable natures, their continuous successful defiance of Spanish and American control, and their fanatical religious traits, are the most important and widely known of the Mohammedan peoples. The most of them live on the island of Jolo, a few miles southwest of Mindanao, where they have for centuries fought their fierce and sanguinary battles. They are found also throughout the Jolo group on the Siassi and TawiTawi Islands, which stretch away to the coast of Borneo, and on the Cagayan de Sulu Islands to the north. Many of them have emigrated to Zamboanga, where they now form no inconsiderable element in the population.

The Sultan of Jolo has always been regarded as the head of the Moslem church in the Archipelago. The island of Jolo is the political and commercial center of the Philippine Moros. The Joloanos, in striking contrast with all the other Moros, present a type very closely approaching the original Malay, from whom they sprang, having mingled their blood with none of the other peoples of the Philippines and only to a slight extent with the Arab traders and missionaries who first brought them into the fold of Islam. These latter, though never present among them in any considerable numbers, invariably held high political rank and, practising the polygamy permitted by the Koran, left traces of their blood among the Moros of rank and wealth which are still easily discernible.

From the boundaries of the Cotabatu district west along the coast and for thirty or forty miles inland, to the Zamboanga district line, live the Maguindanao tribesmen, approximately fifty

2 The Moros call themselves Tau sa Islam or The People of Islam as distinguished in their tongue from the Tau sa Pilipino or Christian Filipinos.

thousand in number, less warlike than any of their neighbors, an agricultural and pastoral people, firmly attached to their Mohammedan faith, but more or less completely reconciled to the present stable and peaceful government.

The Lanao Moros, or more properly, and as they call themselves, the Maranao, or lake people, occupy the great plateau lying about Lake Lanao in north central Mindanao, the entire country surrounding Iligan Bay and the fertile valleys and grassy plains which extend to the southeast of the lake. Originally savage and warlike, they are fast losing these traits and becoming successful tillers of the soil, valued and dependable laborers on roads and public improvements throughout the province and, in a crude and uneconomic manner, rather remarkable workers in brass, copper and silver.

The Yakan Moros inhabit almost alone the island of Basilan, across the straits from Zamboanga. They are probably the best farmers in Mindanao, but have suffered much from contact with the Joloano trouble makers.

The latest comers of the Mohammedans are probably the Samal Moros-the "Sea Gipsies of the East"-whose migration from Johore was of relatively recent date. They are found in Mindanao, invariably close to the water's edge. Great numbers of them live their entire lives aboard their boats. They were formerly pirates and slave catchers, who in many regions dominated their less energetic co-religionists. But American rule has put an end to their lawless activities and they are to-day occupied almost wholly in fishing, leaving their boats only to obtain supplies ashore in exchange for their sea produce. Considerable numbers of these people now live in Jolo and on Basilan, but the most of them still build their rude houses on poles over the water and close to the shore, or wander from place to place along the coast of the Zamboanga Peninsula in their vintas.3

Of the less important Moro tribes may be mentioned the Kali

3 The real Samals are confined to the Samals group of islands. They are not wanderers of the Jolanese type.

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